Jon's Journal Page_8_0_8

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Journal #1 9/19/08

Free:
  • Kawainui Marsh is a vast marsh that is overgrown with tall grass. The grass covers almost the whole marsh and ranges from 3-6 feet tall. There are many different plants and trees that make up the vegetation. The marsh contains lily's, daisy's, ferns, umbrella plants, and others that I do not know the name of.
  • The water is dirty, murky, brown, stagnent, and has a bad smell.
  • Some living animals I saw were :catfish, small blackish fis, turtles, tilapia, papio, mullet, tadpoles, ducks, big snails, sparrows, pigeons, migetos, myna birds, moths, dragonflies, cardinals, butterflies, plummel, bees, ants, mongoose, and etc.
  • Cool, windy, and peaceful.
  • The whole marsh is brackish water, but at the begginning part of the marsh it is more freshwater.


Assigned:
  • The mongoose are a very quick and vicious species. They live in the thick vegetation and rocks. I believe the mongoose are the "top-dogs" of the marsh because they feed on birds and ducks but nothing eat the mongoose.
  • The Birds feed on the small fish and insects and get eaten by the mongoose. The birds use the thick vegetation to make their nest and live in it.
  • The red-eyed turtles also make their nest in the thick vegetation near the shoreline.
  • Butterflies hang out around the wall and live in the thick vegetation. They feed on the small insects.







Journal #2 9/19/08

Free: Biotic
  • There are many different species that live in the marsh. Some living animals I saw were :catfish, small blackish fis, turtles, tilapia, papio, mullet, tadpoles, ducks, big snails, sparrows, pigeons, migetos, myna birds, moths, dragonflies, cardinals, butterflies, plummel, bees, ants, mongoose, and etc.
  • How do the catfish survive? What do they eat?
  • How did the fish first get into the marsh water?
  • How does the catfish affect the plant life?
  • Is there a symbioses between the fish and the plants? If so what?
  • How do the birds affect the community?



Assigned:
  • I observed a commensalism relationship between the small fish and the lily's. The small fish get shelter and protection from the birds that try to eat the small fish, and the lily's are not harmed at all. The lily's just float on top of the water, and they move with the winds.
  • I didnt observe any predator-prey actions, but i can infer that there are some. The ducks and birds eat the small fish. While the mongoose eat the birds and ducks. The butterflies and other predator insects feed the on the red ants and smaller insects. The turtles eat small fish. Te bigger fish eat the smaller fish.
  • I observed a mutual relationship with the bees and the daisys. The bees polinate the daisys while the daisys provide food for the bees.
  • There is a commensalism relationship between the grass and the birds. The birds hide and live in the vegetation while the grass is not harmed.






Journal #3 11/10/08 Time-4:45p.m.

Free: Biotic
  • water is still murky as before and brown
  • ducks are more abundant
  • ducks travel in couples usually
  • ducks like to pick under the shores of the islands of land and dip their bills under water and eat fish or clean bills...
  • no daisys on this side of the marsh
  • tress are taller
  • Ducks travel in couples because that is their mates
  • Ducks travel in packs maybe because those malee ducks are the biggest and most attractive ones, thats why they have a mate
  • The size of the ducks bill plays a role in the mating game and in the survival
  • Ducks with bigger bills are more attractive and get the first pick out of the females
  • Ducks with bigger bills can dig deep into the mud and grab fish easier and better
  • If i place a big duck decoy in the water, then more female ducks will approach the decoy because the bigger ducks are more attrative.
  • If i place a small duck decoy in the water, then hardly any or no female ducks will approach it because the small ducks are not attractive and the female ducks dont like the small ducks
  • If i place a duck with an extra bill extension, then more females will approach it because the bill size are more attractive than small bills.


Assigned:
  • One environmental pressure that could be driving natural selection in my eco-zone, is the size of the ducks that are in the marsh and the size of their bills. This could be driving natural selection because only the biggest ducks with the biggest bills and the most colorful feathers are getting mates and live on. With no mates the ducks cannot reproduce and live on in their offspring. Also, the size of the ducks bill could determine what kinds of food they eat and how well they are at getting food. For example, the ducks with the largest bills are able to eat bigger fish, or are able to get more fish. I was observing that all the ducks were sticking their heads under water and piercing the mud with their bills. I inferred that they were either cleaning their bill, or getting food, (worms fish?).
  • Another environmental pressure could be the amount of females in the marsh area. With fewer females than males that would make it even harder to find a mate.





Journal#4 11/30/08

Free: Biotic
  • Low tide
  • Sunny, breezey, cool
  • Water is still reddish murky
  • I have never seen this before but water is draining out from marsh land, continuous.
  • 40+ ducks in bigger pond near human interaction
  • Ducks still swim in couples, also in groups
  • Some ducks swim, walk on land and eat bugs, and some fly in a land in the water.
  • When thrown food to ducks, ducks are competitive. One time two male ducks were fighting, flapping wings at each other, splashing water everywhere
  • One big (1ft.) orange koi swimming near ducks. (never seen this before)
  • Hardly any ducks in small ponds of water
  • Mongoose roam around in bushes
  • Ducks are very aware of water disturbance
  • Ducks can distinguish between a rock and bread when thrown
  • Ducks avoid humans when they come close, or make sudden movements
Experiment:-If I whistle towards the ducks and feed them and do this process multiple times, then the ducks will responded to the whistle and know that its feeding time because they are capable of doing condition response.
Procedures:
  1. First, I choose a body of water where there were only 4 ducks.
  2. I whistled to observe if the ducks had good hearing senses. Suprisingly, they responded by turning toward the sound and started swimming toward me.
  3. Secondly, after i whistled i fed the 2 couples a little bread.
  4. I moved spots and hid so that the ducks couldn't see me and i whistled. The ducks came and i fed them some more bread. I repeated this step multiple times and every time they followed the sound and I gave them food after.
Conclusion:
  • In conclusion, the ducks are capable of a condition response ability. For example, I have cats at home and everytime my mom whistles a certain sound and opens a can of food, the cats hear the screech of the aluminum can and the whistle and know its feeding time. Just like how the ducks responded to the whistle. Everytime i whistled, the ducks started swimming toward the noise and looked like they were almost waiting for my hand to release food. Even when I moved locations and hid, the ducks still followed the sounds and were waiting to be fed. Another basic condition response for the ducks is when humans move their hands. Everytime humans move their hands the ducks think that food is going to be thrown.



Assigned:
  • In my ecosystem, the carbon cycle is simple. All the living animals such as fish, ducks, mongoose, birds, and cats release carbon into the air. But, the highest contributor to the emissions of carbon dioxide are the humans. The carbon rises into the air. The abundance of plants absorb the carbon dioxide and they release oxygen back into the air. (The dead plants and wood are basically full of carbon and then they erode back into the soil and the carbon dioxide is in the ground. Then the plants absorb the carbon dioxide in the ground and release oxygen again).